Funds, EC's major headache

The Electoral Commission EC of Ghana is starved of the needed funds to undertake their operations and activities. This was the main reason for which the Electoral Commission postponed the conduct of the District level and Unit Committee elections originally scheduled for October 2014 indefinitely.

Evidence of this was further highlighted in the poor publicity during the exhibition of the voters' register. Announcements and Advertisements that would have created the needed awareness were absent. As a result, the exercise was poorly patronised triggering calls from some political parties for an extension of the period allotted.

The Chairman of the Commission in a press conference on February 20, 2014 told the nation of the indefinite postponement of the October 2014 District and Unit Committee elections. At the press meeting, Dr Kwadwo Afari Djan lamented woefully over the distress situation the Commission is put into with the untimely releases of funds and admonished for the timely release of funds to enable them perform satisfactorily.

The year 2014 is at its ends and there is every indication that the District level and Unit Committee elections cannot be conducted this year or even early next year. Our sources at the EC have hinted that the Commission has submitted its budget from now till the 2016 general elections to the Ministry of Finance which is expected to be forwarded to Parliament for discussion and approval.

Parliament reconvened only last week on the 4th of November after their routine recess. As to when the Minister for Finance would be presenting any such budget to parliament we cannot be sure. However, Elections watchers and actors TNF spoke to express the urgent need to discuss and approve the budgetary concerns of the EC so as to guarantee a smooth running of their operations to avert any of the incidences that affected its past operations and activities.

As per Article 45(c) of the 1992 Constitution, the EC is the independent statutory body mandated conduct all elections in Ghana.

It would be recalled that delays and challenges in the execution of its mandate led to complaints from both voters and candidates in the conduct of the 2010 District Level Elections originally scheduled for December 28, 2010. Eventually, the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary elections suffered from the squeeze of their time table and doing so many things at the same time to meet deadlines.

Unhappy with this situation, Parliament at its sitting on Friday, 28th January 2011 adapted a Motion to appoint a twenty (20) member fact-finding adhoc committee to interrogate issues associated with the originally slated 28th December, 2010 District Level and Unit Committee Elections.

Submitting the Committees report to the House on March 28, 2011, the Chairman of the 20member adhoc committee, Mr Dominic A. Azumah said as captured in the hansard of that day on paper number 3460 inter alia: It was revealed that sometimes when the Electoral Commission puts in a request for the release of funds for its programmes and activities, it took three (3) months or over for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to release such monies to the Commission. This situation leads to the late start in activities and unnecessary postponement of programmes.

The EC has a tall order of activities to meet in the run up to the 2016 general elections and it must conduct the District level and Unit Committee elections as early as possible in order to embark on the programme towards the next Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Apart from the issue of money, the EC as per the Hon Dominic Azumah's adhoc committee report observed insufficient time as major hindrance to the proper running of elections. Little or less time leads to all manner of commissions and omissions that eventually mar the operations of the EC. Some other key observations made included Ballot Paper related problems in respect of meeting rushed scheduled dates; Poor awareness creation resulting from stressed time etc.

An EC staff who spoke on the condition of anonymity stressed that "the earlier we began the preparation towards 2016, the better. We cannot afford to go round in circles and arrive at the same old problem again."